Solidere shares also went up by 5.6 percent on the Beirut Stock Exchange to 7.50 dollars.

In contrast to Solidere, the rest of the bourse was virtually unchanged.

Hariri, who had been prime minister between 1992-1998, emerged the biggest winner in legislative elections held on the past two Sundays.

He now heads a parliamentary block of at least one-third of the 128 parliamentary seats and could gather an absolute majority of votes to return to the premier-ship, with his pro-Syrian allies.

An open enmity with President Emile Lahoud had forced Hariri to quit his post when Lahoud took the top job in 1998.

Lahoud and the outgoing government of Prime Minister Salim Hoss had repeatedly held Hariri responsible for Lebanon's economic crisis through money squandering and corruption that has raised the country's debt to what will be an estimated 25 billion dollars at the end of this year - BEIRUT (AFP)